Recent Viewpoints

Kerby Anderson Steven Pinker (Harvard University) says that the left and the right at least agree on one major point: “The world is getting worse.” His new book goes into some detail to show that simply is not true. In a recent op-ed, he reminds us that, “Such gloominess is decidedly un-American.” Unfortunately, we fool ourselves by comparing rose-tinted images of the past with the scary headlines of today. Here are just a few statistics worth considering. The homicide rate…

Kerby Anderson For the last few decades, politicians and high tech companies have been talking about the digital divide. They wanted to make sure that poor and underprivileged students had access to the same digital devices as wealthier ones. I have always felt there was a bigger issue that fewer people were talking about. Fortunately, Naomi Schaefer Riley addresses this in her New York Times op-ed on “America’s Real Digital Divide.” She warns that, “If you think middle-class children are…

Kerby Anderson Often I say on radio that the youngest generation is the most pro-life generation in history. A recent Quinnipiac poll bears this out. It found that 18-to-34-year-olds were more likely than any other age demographic to support a ban on abortions after 20 weeks of gestation. As I mentioned in a recent commentary, that is what a bill in Congress would accomplish if it could pass the US Senate. In a recent Washington Post blog, Eugene Scott also…

Penna Dexter The #MeToo movement is forcing companies to deal with questions of workplace dating etiquette. The recent proliferation of abuse-of-power and sexual harassment allegations has many firms scrambling to establish stricter guidelines while avoiding excessive policing of relationships. For the last decade the share of workers who say they have dated a co-worker has hovered around 40 percent. It dropped last year to 36 percent. Everybody’s a little edgy. Managers and employees alike are wondering: Are consensual office relationships…

Kerby Anderson There are just a few things that hold America together. One is our common interests and ideals. The other is our social fabric. But you have probably noticed that the social fabric has been fraying. Ben Shapiro wrote about this after attending the recent Super Bowl. People were wildly cheering for their team but weren’t attacking other people who were cheering for the opposite team. It was a perfect example of a “great American cultural celebration.” Unfortunately, such…

Kerby Anderson The debate and discussion about transgender issues will continue because of a transgender ideology that has developed that is actually harmful to kids. That is one of the conclusions of the book by Ryan Anderson with the creative title: When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment. The transgender ideology promotes the opportunity for children to change their gender with surgery and drugs. And parents “are told that puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones may be the only…

Kerby Anderson The first year of the Trump administration has been a good year for religious liberty. That is what Kelly Shackelford (First Liberty Institute) documents in a recent column that appeared in National Review. He talks about five major actions by the president that have defended religious liberty. First, and perhaps the most lasting, are the judicial appointments by the president. That certainly includes Justice Gorsuch, but it also includes many other judges that will have a strong adherence…

Kerby Anderson The recent vote on an abortion ban after 20 weeks and a recent column illustrate how extreme the Democratic position has become on the issue of abortion. The Senate voted down the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act. One Democratic senator tweeted that, “If women made up 51% of Congress, do you think we would still be fighting to protect a woman’s right to choose?” Actually a Gallup poll shows that vast majority of Americans (including most women) believe…

Kerby Anderson Last week, I talked about the decision by the Department of Health and Human Services to create the Conscience and Religious Freedom Division. Because of some of the controversy surrounding it, I wanted to revisit the topic. The division was created to protect doctors, nurses, and other healthcare providers “from being coerced into participating in activities that violate their consciences.” That would include such medical procedures as abortion, sterilization, or assisted suicide. The editors at the New York…

Penna Dexter As January — Sanctity of Human Life Month — drew to a close, the US Senate failed again in its effort to curtail late-term abortions. The bill is The Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act. It bans abortions after the five-month mark in a woman’s pregnancy. Research shows an unborn child is fully capable of feeling pain at this stage. Abortions done at 20 weeks gestation and later require that the abortionist tear the baby apart before extraction. The…

Kerby Anderson Over the last few weeks, President Trump has been touting his economic successes. In Davos, Switzerland he proclaimed, “America is open for business, and we are competitive once again.” He went on to remind those who gathered for the conference that “There has never been a better time to hire, to build, to invest, and to grow in the United States.” At the State of the Union speech he said, “We have created 2.4 million new jobs, including…